Earth Matters / Frack Off Greater Chaco

Earth Matters co-producer and GRIP Executive Director Allyson Siwik discusses fracking in the Greater Chaco area of northwestern New Mexico with Miya King-Flaherty, Public Lands Fellow with the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, and Kendra Pinto of Twin Pines, NM whose community has been directly affected by fracking in the area.

The impacts of oil and gas development on the environment and communities in the northwest corner of NM is significant. 91% of our public lands in this area are already leased to oil and gas development, with over 40,000 wells that have fragmented the landscape, contaminated groundwater, and polluted the air causing health impacts to nearby residents.

Much of the remaining 9% of unleased public land is in Greater Chaco, the area surrounding the Chaco Culture National Historic Park and center of the ancestral Puebloan culture. The BLM has scheduled a lease sale of 843 acres of public land from this area in January 2017.

The BLM has never analyzed the environmental and cultural resource impacts of fracking in the Greater Chaco region and is actively amending its resource management plan in response. Meanwhile, the BLM continues to lease additional lands for fracking in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act.

Consider making public comment on the
Bureau of Land Management Regional Management Plan scoping process
by December 20. Find out more at: http://www.frackoffchaco.org/#contact (http://www NULL.frackoffchaco NULL.org/#contact)

Earth Matters is broadcastTuesday, Thursday & Sunday at 10am and Thursday at 8pm.